Car-fender



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANTHONY ISKE AND ALBERT ISKE, or LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

CAR-FENDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 560,317, dated May 19,1896.

Application filed May 1,1895- Serial No. 547,762. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, ANTHONY ISKE and ALBERT IsKE, citizens of theUnited States, residing at Lancaster, in the county of Lancaster andState of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Car-Fenders; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invent-ion relates especially to carfenders of the kind having atilting guardpiece in front with chains or equivalent devices attachedthereto for receiving the body of a person caught thereon.

The chief objects of the said invention are to guard against injury as aresult of a child or other person failing to be caught by the saidtilting board and passing under front of the fender before the wheels;to provide for the easy transfer of the fender from one end of the carto the other without lessening its strength or security of positionwhile in use, and to improve the operation of the fender and itsadaptation to different sizes and makes of cars as well as to therequirements of any particular line.

To these ends our invention consists in the construction and combinationof parts hereinafter more particularly set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a perspective view ofa fender embodying our invention detachably applied to the front of acar. Fig. 2 represents an elevation of the same from the opposite side,showing the hinged guard-piece tilted upward.

A designates the front end of a car provided, as usual, with a buffer ordead-wood A. The latter has two plates B attached to it, extendingvertically above it in a plane parallel to that of the car-front and atsuch an interval as to allow the supporting-bar G of the fender to fitsnugly between the said front and the said plates. Two studs or stops Cproject from the said bar on the outer sides of the said plates andprevent the said bar from moving endwise. Thus fixed the fender cannotbe dislodged without lifting the said supportingbar vertically out ofits place,

and while in use will be held very securely; but when it is needed foruse at the other end of the car or must be taken off forrepairs theabsence of any other fastening makes the removal the work of a moment.This supporting-bar is provided at the ends with two pairs ofoutwardly-extendin g guide-plates D, correspondingly slotted at d toreceive two vertical arms E E, which are adjustable up and down throughthe said slots against the ends of the saidbar and held at any point ofsuch adjustment by pins 6, which may be shifted from one to another ofholes 6, arranged in series in the said arms, each of these two pinsentering one end of the said bar. The lower ends of these arms are bentforward and pivotally connected to lugs f on the rear part offender-frame F, so that the fender as a whole is raised or lowered withthe said arms and made fast with its pivotal line higher or lower, asthe height of the butfer or dead-wood and other considerations mayrequire. The inclination of the forward part of the said frame F isregulated by a pawl G, which is pivoted to arm E just above the downwardand forward bend c of the latter, the said pawl engaging a toothed rackH on the raised rear part of the proximate side bar of the said frame.The said pawl has a series of holes h formed therein to allow theattachment of a spring I, which holds it down, the upper end of the saidspring being shifted from one of the said holes to another to vary thetension, and its lower end being inserted through a hole 6 in the lowerpart of arm E.

The frame F has in side view approximately the shape of aninterrogation-point laid down with the convexity upward, the said rackbeing on this convexity back of its middle point, and the said framebeing pivoted a little in front of the latter. The said frame consistsof four light strong bars, preferably of metal,

corresponding to its outline, and two cross-' bars F F, which extendfrom side to side of the frame and brace it, the bar F being arranged atthe front of the raised and curved rear part, and the bar l beingarranged a little behind the front bar F of the frame, but on a slightlyhigher level. A wire-netting J is attached to the said frame, and coversthe space within it except the interval between the bars F and F Itconforms in cross-section to the shape of the frame already stated, andforms with itat the rear a rigid semicylinder F, with interior spaceenough to receive without undue pressure the body of a person over whomthe front of the said frame may pass. The rear bar F of the said framebeing held obliquely forward just above the rails will pass under thesaid person and prevent the wheels from injuring him or her before theear canbe stopped, the.

said person being carried forward meanwhile in the rear part of the saidcylinder; but this provision, though very important, is intended onlyfor the case of the forward part of the fender failing toperfectlyperform its duty. The person struck is ordinarily expected to be pickedup byor fall over a hinged wooden guard-piece K and to rest on theyielding chains or ropes L, which extend therefrom to the supporting-barG aforesaid. This guard-piece is rounded at its forward edge and fitsinto a downward offset 7a of the fender-frame, so that itwill normallylie flush with the cross-barF to whiehit is attached. This gnard-piecepasses under the person struck, tripping or tilting him backward on thesaid chains, which will be so drawn by his weight and the force of hisfall that they willlift the said guard-piece on its hinges, thusaddingto the security of his position and holding him in a kind offlexible pocket or couch. Experience shows, however, that this does notinvariably happen, for the person may fall forward or sidewise, and someobstruction may lift the front of the fender over him. In such case thedownwardly and forwardly curving construction of the rear part of thefender-frame becomes vitally important. To prevent the bar F fromscratching the rails or being scratched by them, it has a rounded woodenshoe M attached to its under and rearside. A chain N, attached at itsupper end to the upright arm E and at its lower end to the forward partof the frame F, prevents the latter from scraping along the rails. Nopart of the said frame will touch them unless by accident. The

chief use of the said shoe will be when there is the weight of a humanbody on the said rear bar depressing it, or when in adjusting theinclination of the fender its rearend is lowered more than has beenintended.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. A pivotally-mounted cal-fender having its ends on opposite sides ofits pivotal point each provided with means to receive and hold anobstruction on the track, said ends being arranged when said fender isrocked on its pivot to be alternately lowered adjacent to the track inposition to receive an obstruction thereon substantially as set forth.

2. A car-fender provided with a supportingbar having stops on itsforward face, in combination with a buffer or dead-wood and platesraised above the level of the said buffer, leaving space for the saidbar between the said plates and the end of the car, the said stops beingin contact withthe outer edges of the said plates to prevent endwisemotion substantially as setforth.

3. In combinationwith a car-fender frame and the wiremettingwhich coversthe greater portion of the space within the same, a hinged guard-piece,which fits into a space of the said frame uncovered by the said nettingand is connected by chains to. a support, in order that a person struckand tripped by the said guard-piece may fall on thesaid chains and drawthe said guard-piece up after him substantially as set forth.

4. A ear-fender frame shaped so as to have a raised rear semicylindricalpart and an inclined fiat forward part and provided with a wire-nettingand cross-bars 1*"-F arranged as shown, in combination with arelatively-fixed supporting-bar, arms between the said bar and frame, towhich the latter is pivoted, a guard-piece hinged to the said bar F andnormally resting on the front of the said frame and chains connectingthe said guardpiece to the said supporting-bar substantially as setforth.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signa- I tures in presence of twowitnesses.

ANTHONY ISKE. ALBERT ISKE. \Vitnesses:

JOHN \V. BAKER, GEORGE REIsLEv.

